Developing Deeper Student Mentoring Relationships: Black Engineering Faculty Translating their Mentee Experiences to Students (Research)

This research paper explores how Black engineering faculty translate their mentee experiences to develop deeper mentoring relationships with their students. While faculty mentoring is heralded as playing a vital role in advancing the careers of faculty, promoting equity in higher education, and ultimately diversifying the professoriate (Johnson, 2016; Zambrana et al., 2015), little is known about how faculty use their own experiences as mentees to inform their faculty-student mentoring relationships. Thus, this phenomenological study (Moustakas, 1994) explores how seven Black engineering faculty developed deeper student mentoring relationships due to serving as mentees in the Increasing Minority Presence within Academia through Continuous Training (IMPACT) mentoring program. The IMPACT program paired Black engineering faculty with primarily White emeriti faculty for career-focused mentorship, networking, and advocacy. Moustakas' (1994) four-stage process of phenomenological data analysis was employed to examine three rounds of interview data: epoché, horizontalization, imaginative variation, and synthesis. Two major themes emerged inductively relative to how the Black engineering faculty translated their mentee experiences with their students: (1) Vulnerability opened the door to personalized support; and (2) Authentically leading on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Thus, the phenomenon's essence was: As a result of serving as mentees in the IMPACT mentoring program, Black engineering faculty formed deeper mentoring relationships with students through vulnerability, personalized support, and authentically leading on matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion. These findings reveal the ripple effect on the student-faculty relationship when faculty engage in quality faculty mentoring programs. This study is sponsored by a National Science Foundation INCLUDES Design and Developments Launch Pilot award (14-44500). The preferred presentation method is a traditional lecture.